I'll Be Good | Jegulus

Six: first day

Regulus

Barty would've done anything to avoid paying Eliana, mostly because he didn't actually have the money to pay her back.

Yes, his father was rich, but he didn't give Barty free rein of the family money. And when your son has a tendency to act before he thinks, it was only a matter of time before he was in debt to someone. It felt right to just pay it off for him, rather than him wasting his time avoiding the Gryffindor that would have his head if she didn't get her money.

"You're a bloody lifesaver, mate," Barty said, jumping onto Regulus' back as they walked through the busy corridor.

"I'm more responsible than you," said Regulus, shrugging him off, his neck felt hot suddenly. "I'll not do it again. If you're going to buy cigarettes from Duran, do so in moderation."

"Blah, blah, blah," retorted Barty in a bored voice. "Oh, there's your wife."

And he was right, Pandora was stood outside the Transfiguration classroom, Louise Westbrook next to her. Regulus bowed his head and hurried to stand behind Xenophilius, who was sort of edging into Pandora and Louise's conversation. He stood with his back against the wall, he glanced at Barty from under his lashes, who seemed to find this situation hilarious.

"How do you even get out of a betrothal?" asked Barty, far too loud for Regulus' liking. Not only because the people in question nearby heard, but because Sirius did, who was conveniently walking past with his own friends.

"A what?" Sirius asked, marching over to Regulus as though this was his business. He didn't need to hear another word, within their family, a betrothal wasn't just a random topic of conversation. Why was he concerned? Or was he just nosy?

He looked to his brother, and it was like he was looking at a stranger. His face familiar, similar to his own, but talking to him seemed wrong. He wanted to tell Sirius, ask him what he would do, although he doubted what Sirius would do would actually be socially acceptable. Or legal. However, as he looked at him, his hero, the one who left, the one who knew how bad it can get and still decided to leave. How dare he ask? Hate him. It's way easier than loving the brother who abandoned you. Hate him because then there's nothing else to lose.

Regulus parted his lips, thinking of something clever to say, something sarcastic, he was always prepared for a snarky comment. However, none came to mind as he and his brother looked at one another. The students of Hogwarts moved within the corridors, trying to get to their classes quickly, but the world seemed to stop between Sirius and Regulus. Thankfully, he didn't need to think of anything, Barty was there.

"Piss off, Black," he said, shoving Sirius back, it wasn't rough but it wasn't exactly cautious either. And as per usual, Sirius saw red.

"He's my brother you prat, I can talk to him if I like," Sirius said almost in a growl.

"Right, Pads," said Potter, putting his hand on Sirius' chest to try and push him back, friendlier than the way Barty done it.

"C'mon," Lupin said, a gentler hand on Sirius' shoulder.

"Reg, I'll find out what's going on," vowed Sirius, Regulus grinned bemusedly towards his brother. Barty chuckled, smirking menacingly at Sirius, clearly trying to antagonise him. "And I'll punch that smirk off of your mate's ugly mug."

"You couldn't hit water if you fell out of a boat, Sirius," Regulus stated dryly before following his classmates into the Transfiguration class. He was surprised to hear Potter chuckle a little and then said a quiet sorry, but it was sort of funny.

"Would you say I'm ugly, Reg?" asked Barry quietly as they took notes in class. Copying from the board was actually relaxing to Regulus, Sirius called him a loser many times for this. As if he didn't study in the library all the time during exam season.

"Why?" asked Regulus, he'd noticed Barty was distracted, more so than usual, his leg was continuously bobbing up and down and he was tapping his quill on the desk.

"Dunno," he shrugged, looking down at his parchment.

Regulus looked at Barty, who was busy with trying to keep up with the notes. Was Barty ugly? Regulus hadn't thought of it before, but he knew that he wasn't by any means ugly or unattractive. He had nice hair, it was dark and always sat just right, and he had sharp features. His face wasn't defined like Regulus' own, but he had a strong jaw, a nice smile.

"No. You're not ugly," Regulus whispered, it was a random question, but it had a clear correlation to what Sirius had said before they went into class. He must've wanted reassurance and Regulus understood that.

The boys were silent after that. Although Louise was sending them annoyed glares during the brief exchange. Transfiguration was over, and now it was time for Ancient Runes, to which Barty winced and said he had Divination. Both Xenophilius and Pandora overhead him say this and offered to walk with him. Pandora pointedly ignored Regulus' whole existence, he wasn't too thrilled to be betrothed to a hippy like her, either.

"Have you had any prefect meetings yet?" Louise asked, who decided she'd walk with Regulus to Ancient Runes. "The one-on-one's with Evans and Potter?"

"Erm—no, not yet," he replied, glancing at her with mild annoyance. Those meetings had slipped his mind.

She wasn't annoying per say, she was just extremely aggravating in the way that she always spoke her thoughts and opinions, even when literally no one asked. She was knowledgeable, yes, but that didn't cancel out being a know-it-all. It was like looking into an obnoxious mirror, but Regulus knew when to hold his tongue.

"I had mine this morning," said Louise, they climbed the stairs and, yes it was sort of mean, but Regulus attempted get a little space between them within the crowd, but to no avail. "Evans is so smart, she's Muggleborn like me, and so we can really bond over that."

Okay, good for you, thought Regulus bitterly. He wondered if she ever stopped talking to take a breath, or to let anyone else get a word in edge ways. Regulus didn't saw anything when she uncharacteristically paused, and so she continued.

"Potter is really nice, too. He's Pureblood but—oh, sorry, Black," she said, her face flushing. "I didn't mean to bring him up in front of you."

"Why?" asked Regulus, he knew the obvious, because of Sirius. He just wanted to put on her on the spot because he'd never seen Louise Westbrook be anything else but self-assured.

"Well, because of your brother and all that mess," said Louise unsurely. "I didn't mean to—"

"It's fine, Westbrook," sighed Regulus, unlike at Transfiguration, the Professor was ready for them to come in and so, Louise sat next to Regulus at the back row next to the window.

"I got an O in Ancient Runes for my OWLs," she said, however, it seemed more like a scramble for another topic of conversation rather than a brag.

"I did, too," replied Regulus, unpacking his needed materials for the class as students filed in, and to his surprise, in came Eliana Duran. He assumed she didn't get a good enough grade to start NEWTs work, he never seen her study.

Regulus made no comment as she sat at the table in front of he and Louise, it was two to a table but Eliana put her bag on the seat next to her. He wished he'd thought of that before he was landed next to the girl who had a bunch of these muggle things called pens. That wasn't what annoyed him, it was that she clicked it over and over again as she waited for the lesson to start.

"Can you stop?" Eliana snapped, turning around to scowl at Louise before Regulus could ask her to do so himself, although he was going to be a little more polite. Maybe. She did stop, Regulus saw her thumb hovering over the button to continue, probably just to spite the Gryffindor, but she didn't.

He wasn't looking forward to being caught in the middle of their arguments for the rest of the year.